As I get into the Quantum which will take me from Joburg to the game park where I will lecture for the Wildlife Film Academy, the radio is playing one of my favourite songs, Human by The Killers.
“Are we human? Or are we dancers? My sign is vital. My hands are cold. And I’m on my knees looking for the answer – are we human? Or we dancers?”
As we drive further away from the city in the speedy minibus we pass an old white man trying to thumb a lift. He’s the unlikeliest hitchhiker I’ve ever seen. Signs warn: “Heavy vehicles: Wheels stolen!” We’re definitely heading into the wild.
We leave the order of towns for that of agricultural land as we travel through vast spaces dotted with a few citrus farms. A Land Rover, complete with rugged Marlboro man, collects me from the drop-off point and takes me into the camp where I will stay. The radio in the Land Rover blares: “Are we human? Or are we dancers?” What are the odds?
On the short drive through dongas we pass a dead rock monitor. It has been run over.
Marlboro man stops to radio someone to clear the body from the road. Finally we arrive at the tented camp. A small tent will be my home for the next three nights. I’ll shower shielded only by a sheet of canvas with views across the veld. At night I’ll hear the sounds of wild animals echo in the bush around me. I’ve arrived.
I’m here to give three days’ of lectures to the Wildlife Film Academy students who have come to make their own short documentary wildlife film. My brief is to talk about turning a documentary into a story, using my experience co-writing the feature film script White Lion, a story based on the exploits of a real white lion.
Students have come from all over the world to spend a month at the camp. They are lectured by experts in each aspect of film-making, including script-writing, editing and camera expertise.
“The Wildlife Film Academy (WFA) was conceptualised at the very first Wild Talk Africa Film Festival held in 2005 in Durban,” explains the director and founder of WFA and Wild Talk Africa Festival, Sophie Vartan. “A group of 30 dedicated individuals gathered together to shape the future of the industry.”
The initial members of this group included Dr Pallo Jordan, Minister of Arts and Culture; Eddie Mbalo, then CEO of the National Film and Video Foundation; Marcel Golding, CEO of e.tv; Mark Wild from Animal Planet; and 20 wildlife filmmakers.
The decision was taken that not only did Africa need to have its own wildlife film festival, but also that it should provide an opportunity for South Africans to learn more about wildlife filmmaking with the idea of getting internships with production companies afterwards.”
The first WFA course started in February 2006. Vartan explains that the WFA has trained hundreds of students since it started. It moved to Kruger National Park for a year and now takes place in the Entabeni Game Reserve’s training camp under the majestic Waterberg mountains.
“Our format has proved so successful that we have a waiting list,” says Vartan.
Both WFA and Wild Talk Africa fall under the umbrella company, the Natural History Unit of Africa, (NHU Africa). NHU Africa is an independent company managed by Vartan.
“The WFA gives students from around the world the opportunity to live their dream by spending time in the African bush to learn how to produce their own five-minute wildlife film,” Vartan explains. “The month is divided into three parts which includes theory-based lectures, filming in Kruger and post-production and editing.”
My first group of students is a motley collection from Europe and South Africa. There’s Marilleke, an astrophysicist from Belgium, who wants to explore her dream of becoming a wildlife film-maker.
Then there is Noa from Italy, whose love of wildlife reduces her to tears. Suzanne is a talented Dutch journalist.
Catherine is a British student so moved by the story of elephant culling that she came to Africa to find out more. Rounding out the party are South Africans William, Gert and Sithembiso. All are avidly keen to become film-makers.
My three days are virtually sunrise to sunset lecturing. It’s hard work all round but the sense of enjoyment is palpable, inspired by the proximity of the African bushveld.
Soon my time is up but not before the students decide to give me an impromptu farewell party. Gert and William produce guitars which they play with great skill. The rest of us form percussion bands using everything at hand. Marlboro man joins us, playing his hide-covered drum. Suzanne is the conductor of the less rhythmic members of the choir. I haven’t laughed so much in years.
In the morning the students wave goodbye as they leave for their first bush drive into Kruger. I begin the long trek back to the city.
At the end of the month I meet them at the Wild Talk Festival in Durban.
The WFA students’ films are shown in the lunch break. I am moved by the beauty of some of the films they’ve made. I take heart in the fact that the students have learnt skills during their month at WFA to prove we are more than human. They, like dancers, have created works of beauty out of the natural world they discovered in the bush around them.
For the full course outline go to www.wildlifefilmacademy.com or e-mail Geta Palm on [email protected] - Sunday Independent